week 8

• gender interacts with social class in 2 important senses


  1. it provides the ground for separating occupations into men's and women's jobs
  2. women hold more lower-paying positions than men in the labour force
• exchanged theory: the assertion that power in relationships is influenced by the resources that a member brings to the relationship
• the 4 basic areas of inquiry in sociology


  1. social structure
  2. social order
  3. social change
  4. social stratification
• social stratification: a society's categorization of its people into rankings based on factors like wealth, income, education, family background, and power
• 4 key principles of social stratification

  1. all societies redistribute materials and social rewards to individuals
  2. the system is relatively stable over time
  3. stratification varies in how it expresses itself
  4. the criteria by which wealth and prestige are granted are nonetheless considered fair and just by the majority of the population
• social inequality: when certain atributes (class, gender, prestige) affect a person's access to socially valued resources
• classism: an ideology that assigns differential value to people based on their social class
• blaming the victim: criticizes the poor for not doing enough to help themselves
• oscar lewis: "culture of poverty"


  people born into poverty become adapted to poor mindsets
• blaming the system: systemic discrimination exists within the social system
• closed social system system: little to no social mobility because most or all statuses are ascribed
• caste system: a closed stratification system with strict rules regardinf the type of work that members of different castes can do
• open social system: people can move up from a poor social background or down from a wealthy background thorugh their own efforts and abilities
• 2 components of inequality


  1. property
  2. occupational prestige
• property: important indicator of where you are in the class structure (2 categories)


  • income: all of the money that you receive from all sources
  • wealth: your accumulated assets
• occupational prestige: occupation helps to determine social class position


  • jobs ranked high: dentist, lawyer, physician, architect
  • jobs ranked low: showmaker, tailor, referees
• davis-moore thesis: social stratification is functional for society because it ensures that key social positions are held by the most capable people
• 2 important functions of social inequality in the davis moore theory


  • social inequality intilles in certain people that desire to fill certain social positions
  • social inequality intilles in those poeple the desire to complete their duty and their responsibilities
• 3 critiques of the davis moore thesis

  • one of the rewards that social elites get is their ability to help their children assume the same benefits they have
  • there is still substantial discrimination in terms of who is eligible tp assume elite positions
  • what determines the salary of a given occupation is not so much how valuable the work actually is but what value did the market determine
• critical conflict theory: competition between those who have power and those who dont


  • marx: social stratification is the embodiment of class conflict and is inevitable in capitalist economies that require the exploitation of the working classes
  • weber: social stratification is unavoidable and necessary and cannot be determined only in terms of class
• conspicuous leisure: the demonstration of ones high social status through forms of leisure
• conspicuous waste: the disposal of valuable goods to demonstrate wealth